


Rock Your World

by Astr



Series: AU-gust 2020 [13]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, F/M, Fluff, I wrote this instead of working rip me, Pining, idk how i feel about this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25790191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astr/pseuds/Astr
Summary: AU-gust Prompt: 13. Rock Band AUKanaia Mahariel is the frontwoman for the new rock sensation, the Black Wardens, a new offshoot of an old, dead group. Zevran Arainai, sexy security for the Antivan Crows, has been sent in by Loghain Mac Tir's paranoia to shut them down. Too bad he has good taste.
Relationships: Zevran Arainai/Female Mahariel, Zevran Arainai/Female Warden
Series: AU-gust 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1853722
Kudos: 5





	Rock Your World

**Author's Note:**

> Day 13!! We're almost 2 weeks in! 
> 
> This is a meandering fluff piece, but I'm content with it for the most part.

The battle of the bands was underway. Black Wardens was on a hot streak, and it was no idle speculation to assume that they would be the ones to go up against Archdemon, the black metal reigning champions, fathers of Hurlock, Genlock, and Broodmother.

The Wardens was a revival of the old Grey Wardens, after most of their members passed away in a bus crash. Only one member had survived, their roadie-turned-bassist Alistair Theirin. He had found the woman they were interviewing to be a lead singer when they retired - a tall, intimidating Dalish girl known as Kanaia, and the two along with the daughter of their major instrument supplier formed the base of Black Wardens.

Along the way they'd acquired a back-up vocalist and Jill-of-all-trades, Leliana, a former Chantry sister. Then they had picked up a hardcore Drummer in Sten, a qunari man who was seeking to regain lost honor. They had Roadies, Sandal and Boden. All they really needed was some dedicated security (especially after several attempts to steal their things, or assault them.

Almost too conveniently, they were introduced to Zevran Arainai, of the Antivan Crows company. The rest of the band didn't trust him, but Kanaia decided to take a chance. They needed the help. And he was handsome. Good with a knife in a pinch, too.

Zevran had not been purely truthful in his offer, however. Indeed he was an Antivan Crow, and he had indeed been sent to help. However, he had been sent by the paranoid father of one of the judges. 

Anora was a beauty, and had been, of late, receiving threats. It didn't help, also, that her husband had been involved in the accident that had taken out the Grey Wardens. Her father, Loghain Mac Tir, was worried out of his mind. There was simply no way, in his mind, that Black Wardens were anything less than a hostile force, likely to team up with the notoriously violent and unstable Archdemon. They'd never shied away from violence or gore, and the closer Wardens came to the final battle, the more Loghain was terrified of losing his little girl.

So he had called in help. Zevran ( or rather,the Crows) had been paid quite a sum to take the Wardens down from the inside, so he was going to do that.

Unfortunately, he didn't count on falling for the music, or more specifically, the lead singer.

He didn't even know what drew him to her, initially, besides her physical attractiveness. It wasn't some secret elf thing, it wasn't some Beauty and the Beast bullshit, he just… fell. He was finding himself admiring the stupidest things, from the way she hung scarves on her mic stand, to the way she cut her hair, to the colours she dyed it. It was embarrassing. He was suave, he was sexy, he could bed any so-inclined person he wanted. And here he was. Pining. Like a little kid with their first crush.

Maybe it started when he had scoffed at their rider, with "BOWL OF ONLY BROWN M&M'S IN BAND ROOM" written in huge font, circled.

"What, may I ask, is this about? Is one of you really that picky?" He asked with a chuckle.

She shrugged and shook her head.

"Tells me if I can trust the venue with the stage set-up."

"How? I don't see any relation between candy and stages."

She smiled and glanced back at him.

"If they can't do this, written out in this big font, how can I feel confident that they'll pay attention to the important stuff, like my pyrotechnics specs, or the screens, or the amps, or weight limits? My old man used to haul equipment for a band. He died when a fire prop crashed onto the stage. I was there, as an additional hand. I was 16. I won't let that happen to my people."

She still had that smile, but it didn't reach her eyes anymore, and Zevran was entirely unsure how to proceed. He wanted to comfort her, but didn't have any clue as to how.

So he nodded and turned around to go inspect the stage himself.

It was things like that, the way she cared so much for people she barely knew, the way she looked out for trouble in the crowds (once stepping in and getting a black eye intended for a young lady who was being harrassed), the way she always made sure to thank every person working their gigs, that Zevran felt had led to his downfall.

One night, a few weeks before their inevitable battle against the last of Archdemon, he slipped away. He left a letter, detailing, explicitly, what he had been hired to do. He apologized, but said that they would be better off without him, and left the names of a few good mercs they could hire in his stead. He hoped that would be it, and he could properly leave. He got on a bus as far out as he could.

Three days and a hundred miles later, who should appear but Kanaia Mahariel. Even in dark sunglasses and an oversized hoodie he knew her. Knew her by the way she stood, the way she favoured her left foot, the way her head tilted when she was thinking.

Before he could make to run, she had him, arms around his body in a full hug.

"I need you," was all she said.

It was all he needed, apparently.

If any of the other band had noticed his absence, or the way she had a slight limp from some… activities the pair had engaged in the night before, no one said anything. He didn't know if he was grateful or unnerved. It was only when Sten took him aside that he really grasped how much these people cared about each other.

"Scare her like that again, and I will break every bone in your body."

Zevran knew he meant it, too.

"I won't. Crow's honour."

"Crow's have no honour."

True enough.

"I swear, then, on my own body. I hurt her at all, I'll deliver myself to your massive and capable hands."

It seemed to satisfy the giant man, who let him go, lumbering away to do… whatever it was he did on his own time.

As they fought their way through the semifinals, all the way to their head-to-head with Archdemon, and his work actually got hard, Zevran Arainai realized that he had something he had never dreamed he could:

He had home.  
He had family. Most of all, though?  
He had love.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, thanks for joining me on this rollercoaster! See you tomorrow for some cute Krem/Cole!


End file.
